Stop DOVE from Destroying Our Forests

If you are a big fan of Unilever’s brand Dove, think again. Unilever positions Dove as a brand that helps women bring out their real inner beauty. Dove tells women not to be shy of how fat they may look or how old they may seem, just be confident and be yourself.

But as an Indonesian woman, you should now find out the process that Dove has to go through in order to be able to bring out your real inner beauty.

I admit that I’m not an environmentalist but I believe that you don’t have to be an environmentalist to be able to save the earth. I think every small step counts.

I think it should be our concern, especially Indonesian women, that Dove is accussed for driving forest destruction in Indonesia. I think we should pay a big attention to the accusation since it doesn’t come from our own government who is famous in giving political-driven statements. It’s Greenpeace who is blaming Dove to be the reason why we Indonesians have to lose our trees every single day.

What Greenpeace says on Dove:

Unilever, the company behind products like Dove soap, is driving forest destruction and speeding up climate change by buying palm oil from companies which are destroying Indonesia’s rainforests to make way for palm oil plantations. By their own admission, Unilever is the biggest single user of palm oil in the world.

Unilever pretends to be an environmentally responsible company, but what it is actually responsible for is destroying areas of rainforest, driving species extinction and speeding up global warming. Being one of the biggest users of palm oil on the planet, Unilever must stop buying palm oil from these companies and call for a halt on the destruction of Indonesian forests to grow palm oil.

I myself have signed the open letter provided by Greenpeace to tell Unilever CEO Patrick Cescau to stop buying palm oil from companies in Indonesia so that more trees and animals can be saved.

I hope you do too and let the world know that young Indonesians won’t let those big companies destroy our forests!

Of course i agree with you – it’s all in line with the policies of the political (Green) party I’m a member of. Really. No kidding.

But then, there are always dilemma’s you know. Questions like

– what will happen to the mother in law of my oldest son when Unilever and the likes of them stop buying palm oil from Indonesia? The old lady is making a minimal living by producing and selling palm oil on a small scale. She will not be happy, I guess.
– what’s the exact part of all the destruction that is taking place, for which we can blame Unilever? Is this multinational the main culprit? Isn’t the demand for wood in Japan and China actually not the most destructive force?
– And, what is the responsibility of Indonesian authorities for having allowed foreign companies to cut down forests in Kalimantan and elsewhere legally and illegally?

Several months ago I attended a meeting with the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO). It is an international organization of palm oil’s stakeholders, which include producers, distributors, conservationists and other stakeholders. Here’s from RSPO website: “… It is vital that production and use of palm oil must be done in a sustainable manner based on economic, social and environmental viability.”

One of many other ways to slow down environmental destructions is to use paper and paper-based packaging that is produced, or containing fiber, from certified forest.

Colson: I’m happy to know that fact🙂 You might be able to give us tips on how to be green.

A boycott on Dove, are you serious? Hehe. Interesting idea.

I agree with the dilemma you have pointed out, that’s why I think a green movement should be a national movement and not just partially. The government should have a strong motivation to actually save the earth and our environment. If many people say that saving the earth may hurt the economy, I don’t think so. Some researches have shown that saving the earth may be heplful to the economy if done properly. Of course that’s not easy.

Nieke: Wah gimana sich! Hehe.

Bleu: Palm oil is actually good for the people in the world, it might be the answer for the energy crisis that we have to face today. The challenge is how we can produce alternative energy without destroying the natural ecosystem.

1. First of all, THANK YOU info nya. i have been using dove for ..years now. hehe. in indonesian commercial it says moisturizing our skin yah. that’s why i use it as it’s so dry here. i wasn’t aware of this info until i read ur article.

2. but, change from dove to what? other soap brand? but still using soap? well dear, all the oily stuff we use to take care of our skin are all from the nature. in one way or another, we must consume the resources, it’s a mean of SURVIVING.

3. you are RIGHT in the point we should not use it too much as we deplete it faster than they can recover.

4. i dont have faith in GREENPEACE, so to say. in my class, believe it or not, environmental subject could start with a video screening from green peace website on deep coral reef. afterwards, students should discuss what kinds of lies and stupidity Green peace has put on the video. with greenpeace; the idea, we may buy. but the movement, no. Greenpeace even have contributed to increase rate of criminal act and economic drop of the inuit after their ‘no kill seal campaign’ gave no damn care to anything but save the seals. the whole world followed Bridged Bardot and Green peace-stop using seal product because the hunters kills cutty and cuddly baby seals brutally. but never have they mentioned, that the Canadian indigenous people-who rely their economic incomes from seal hunting-have their own traditional technique to kill seals that follows animal ethic.

5. UNILEVER in many ways, have proofed their contribution to the environment, perhaps in a more concrete way than green peace. one that is so evolutionary to the environmental movement would be Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) certification. It’s kind of a green certification for various products. Unilever was one of the very first to start on the idea.

6. i agree that we should stop cutting forest for palm oil plantation. it’s environmentally and socially brutal to human and environment. I also think we have BIOFUELISHED (read:biofoolished) ourselves by believing that the palm oil can save our future. technology may help, to certain extend, but the basic idea should be limiting our desires to consume and consume.

7. in CONCLUSION; thank you very much for the info. i agree that palm oil plantation should not endanger Indonesian forest. and it’s a very refreshing air in this consumerist and superficial youngsters life-come a youth like u who cares about the real thing. BUT i must do more research before i decided to change dove or not. hehehe..should check if the info is correct (perhaps the palm oil plantation supplies UNILEVER was not established by damaging the forest..if it’s possible??!!) and if it is, what brand should i use? as i am a student, i must think and re think before i buy bodyshop-thought it’s a greener products.

again, thanks for the info. i made a litle browse here and there and it makes me realiaze..how easy had our intelligences been burnt by greenpeace. and to be honest, it pissed me off.

Forest.org published statement from Unilever which said that they have started to work on sustainable palm oil 10 years ago by developing and sharing own guidelines and good practices with growers and suppliers, leading to the setting up of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil in 2004. Through the RSPO, they have continued to work hard to build an industry consensus on criteria for sustainable palm cultivation.

of course one may argued what is certified in Indonesian term? even LEGAL lodging are damaging the environment. but i am not stopping here. will check with friends in Borneo Orang Utan Survival (NGO for Indonesian Orang Utan) if Dove really killed Orang Utan in any way.

And why Dove? among many other Unilever’s product? why Unilever only? many other brands are also using plam oil. it’s too fishy for me.

Dont get me wrong, i think we should save Indonesian rain forest, you know i do think so and that’s part of the objective of the film we made, the Sui Utik. But saving the environment in personal movement, for me should be philosophically correct, for others, i don’t care-but i know people are more interested in utilitarian reasons. and i don’t mind, as said, resources are there for us to utilize them.

BUT, saving the environment in social movement, should be politically correct and this, i do CARE (try to).

Tasa, you are an influential Indonesian youngster, i really wish and rely on your political correctness in campaigning eco-friendly movement🙂

@Zulfi: Thanks! But i am not sure i deserve it. i fool my self a lot actually.
frankly speaking, on the ‘no kill seal’ campaign, i felt i was a fool for believing the article circulated by email just like that. i didn’t realize what i was doing until last february, in a biodiversity conference, people (scientist and practitioners of eco-friendly programmes) actually warned each other to be smart in being environmental friendly, using the greenpeace ‘no kill seal’ campaign as a fool example. i came to an Inuit group afterwards and asked apology for my banality in just believing greenpeace and contributed to the movement.

Sorry, perhaps I should elaborate more.
The vid above, titled Onslaught(er), is a response to a viral video advertising for Dove’s Self Esteem Fund, titled: Onslaught. Unilever is the client of Ogilvy & Mathers, the advertising agency that have produced these viral ads.

PS: Funny how several of your commenters here are getting so excited over bashing Dove, isn’t it?

I’m not a fan of Green Peace myself, but I have to say they’ve been successful in buiding global attention on environmental issues. On this matter, I’m not saying that Green Peace is a great organization that they’re always telling the truth. But, I’m sure that not many Indonesians know that even soaps are made of palm oil. This correlation is something we should teach our friends and others so more people are aware how environment and humans are so much dependent to each other.

Green Peace might be wrong on other issues, but the phenomenon of biofuels and alternative energy is something real and it needs our attention.

As good citizens, we need to ask both Green Peace and Unilever what they’re doing to our environment. Unilever on one side, made a huge profit in 2007 from Indonesians customers. I read an article saying that they made Rp 1.964 Trillion profit last year, look at how much money they’ve made from our country. With that kind of money we should demand that they do something big to our environment, something honest.

We have to make sure that what Unilever is doing with green programs like you pointed out is not just because they’re following trend that’s happening around the world. In America, companies are actually using the green theme to make people buy their products and hypnotizing them telling that they have helped save the earth.

US, however, is the top CO2 emitter in both category. One who argues about rich-poor in climate change issue may has some points. because though we produce much CO2, but IMHO, it is unfair to blame the Indonesians for consuming much CO2 (excluding Jakartans), because only 52% of Indonesians are currently enjoying the luxury of electricity (data from PLN website).

Tasa, i agree on some of your points and raise my hat (not my headscarf, not for you, no😀 ) for your sincere effort to increase people’s awareness for the environment. And i think, more or less, less or more, more more than less, you have made it, Congrats!

But with all due respect, i DISCOURAGE people to sign the petition to blame Dove, for the same reason as Ary conveyed.

Have you read Jubel’ article that he recommended us to read? It’s a bit too scientific (no offend Jubel, it’s also clear that the article was made from a chemical engineer point of view :p) but a very good argument to not blaming just biofuel.

About Unilever’s profit, wah..gede juga yah! hehe. maybe i should apply for a job in CSR Unilever. lol. but yes, i agree with you. we should urge Unilever to invest more on their CSR activities. but not in this way, not in my humble opinion nor in my intelectual wanabe opinion.

However, i do respect differences. So as long as you have faith for what you are doing/saying/writing..keep on doing it with open minded!

Bukangukguk: You’re right, Uncle Sam is still the champion when it comes to producing carbon. But, that doesn’t mean we don’t need to care with our own destruction.

Ary: I don’t expect everyone to agree with every opinion I make, so I appreciate your point of view. But you have to know that both Green Peace and me don’t support the boycott of Dove products. What Green Peace wants Unilever to do is to buy palm oil from companies that don’t cut trees.

M: Thanks for the link🙂 Thanks for the support, although we may not agree on everything but at least we have the same dream when it comes to saving the environment.

I agree that Indonesia and other poor countries can’t be blamed 100 percent for our carbon production, because at the end we are just a victim of the world’s economy.

Quoted from M:
“Have you read Jubel’ article that he recommended us to read? It’s a bit too scientific (no offend Jubel, it’s also clear that the article was made from a chemical engineer point of view :p) but a very good argument to not blaming just biofuel.”

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guebukanmonyet is Tasa Nugraza Barley. He's a free man with unique thoughts and dreams. He sees his life and this world differently from anyone else. That's because he knows what he wants; and for that reason he doesn't want
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